This invention concerns the handling and disposing of sanitary napkins and, in particular, concerns means for protecting a sanitary napkin having an adhesive attachment system before use and means for disposing of such a napkin after use.
The art is now replete with suggestions for sanitary napkins which can be applied to the crotch portion of an undergarment and held in place there by an adhesive element thus eliminating the need for the more conventional attachment systems such as belts, pins, and the like. Generally, such napkins comprise an adhesive element in the form of a rectangular layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive or a double faced adhesive tape arranged in various patterns on the bottom surface of the napkin (i.e., the surface of the napkin worn away from the body). Because such adhesive elements are necessarily tacky, it is essential that a protective layer be provided to overlie the adhesive element prior to use, the protective layer being capable of releasably peeling from the adhesive element at the time of use. Such protective layers have heretofor comprised a relatively stiff sheet of material essentially co-extensive in size with the adhesive element and being specially treated so as to easily peel from the adhesive element at the time of use. For example, a heavy paper strip having one surface coated with silicone has been used commercially.
Napkins of this type are then typically packaged, without further protection, in cardboard, or flexible film packages of eight, 10, 12 or more napkins.
Several drawbacks are associated with the construction and packaging of adhesively attached napkins in the manner described above. Firstly, a large number of napkins packaged in a single package, necessarily means that the package will remain open, with the unused napkins exposed and subjected to soiling, for a period of days and even for as much as a month or longer. Secondly, a user will frequently remove several napkins from the large package and place them in her handbag for future use. The exposed napkins are once again subject to being soiled when carried in a purse. Thus, it is advantageous to individually wrap each napkin. Unfortunately, the additional materials and processing steps required to so wrap each napkin would appear to greatly increase the cost of the product to the consumer and heretofor, no economical means have thus far been suggested for accomplishing this without such increased cost.
Still another problem which relates to the above described napkins is in the disposal of the used napkin. Ideally a used napkin should be fully wrapped immediately after use and disposed of in a closed trash receptacle. Understandably however, there is a great reluctance toward any extensive handling of the used napkin and so all too frequently, the napkin is disposed of in an unwrapped condition or alternatively is simply flushed in a water closet where it often causes clogging of the associated piping. Several suggestions are found in the prior art for alleviating this problem and are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,750,033 issued June 12, 1956 to J. B. Pickens or U.S. Pat. No. 2,766,927, issued on Oct. 16, 1956 to J. S. Wallace. Each of these patents describe a closed envelope or receptacle for receiving a soiled napkin, the envelope being reclosable or sealable after receiving the same. While it appears that these suggestions would function quite well with conventional napkins, it is likewise apparent that these complex, specially designed receptacles would represent a substantial portion of the cost of the product to the consumer. Additionally, when attempting to use these receptacles with the newly developed adhesively attached napkins, it is exceedingly difficult to slide such a used napkin into an envelope-like receptacle without extensive handling of the soiled napkin. This is primarily due to the resistance to sliding caused by the now exposed adhesive element which is tacky and adheres to the walls of the envelope.
Accordingly, there is a need for an inexpensive, yet effective means for packaging and disposing of adhesively attached sanitary napkins.